Little Boxes, Big Potential: Dungeon Roll and We Didn't Playtest This At All

This weekend I was in Denver visiting family for Memorial Day Weekend. The weather decided to give us a rain/hail/tornado cocktail in which we spent a fair amount of time indoors. This provided us the perfect excuse to visit a FLGS, since the only game I had packed in my bag was a copy of Avalon and we only had four players instead of the required five. 

We went to Enchanted Grounds, which has a unique setup as a coffee/game/comic shop. While they didn't have a great depth of titles on offer, they did have some games that I had never heard before. Nothing was really grabbing me in the realm of big publisher, high production value titles (though my brother in law did pick up Fantasy Flight's, Elder Sign.) 

Against my normal tastes I picked up two small, indie titles I hadn't heard of before, the strategic dice throwing Dungeon Roll and the comic We Didn't Playtest This At All. They are two cheap and cheerful titles that show what can be done with minimalist design. 

Dungeon Roll - Strategic Dice Based Dungeon Crawler - 1-4 Players - 15$

Dungeon Roll is a surprisingly deep dice game packed in a charming box. A quick google search will reveal it as yet another Kickstarter success story, which far surpassed it's initial asking level. It's clear that they put the extra cash into the quality of components. The box itself is a durable card stock, the custom dice are weighty and detailed, and all of the components have a certain level of shine to them. This eye popping presentation almost covers up the unfortunate flaws in the game itself.

Pre-Heresy Ultramarine Terminators and Scouts.

Well, another year has gone by without a new post, so it's high time I posted about what I am working on:

First off, the pre-heresy termies. I was inspired by some home grown terminators I was seeing online and decided to try my hand at them. The torso's, legs, and heads are from the plastic grey knight terminator box, the shoulder pads are from assorted Dreadnought kits, and the arms are normal Terminator arms. 

This project was a challenge because I don't really have a whole lot of experience with using green stuff. For some reason I really thought mohawks made sense for an Ultramarine, and I think they will give them a lot of character. I dont know how the extra tubes and stuff will look with paint on them, but I hope they turn out ok. 

I've always liked the look of the centurion plume on the 2nd ed. Ultramarine captain, and I tried to replicate the look here. I also played around a lot with drilling out gun barrels for these models. I think they add an extra level of detail and look great when the model is finished. 

The assault cannon trooper was a fun experiment. I had actually started this project back in 2011 and finished all of the other troops in the squad, but life blew up over the next year and I didn't really have time to get back to it until moving into my new apartment. The base of the assault cannon is from the Grey Knights psy-cannon. The barrels were the most tricky part. I wanted to slot them somehow into the psycannon base to add some durability. The only way I could drill holes large enough was to use the smallest drill bit on my power drill and then slowly and carefully drill some sink holes. Thankfully everything went as planned, and I have the durability that I wanted, plus I think the assault cannon looks great, and fitting to the pre-heresy time period. 

I look forward to painting these guys soon. I plan basing their look on the 2nd edition art direction with lots of blue/white checker print. I always thought that look added a lot of character to the universe, and it's a look that I try to fit into most of my Ultramarines. 

Second project: Sniper Scouts

Nothing too out of the ordinary here, just the basic sniper squad box with a minor tweak. 

I always thought the over sized silencers on these rifles looked stupid (and impractical, because if these guys are fighting on a battlefield of the 41st millenium, silencers would be pretty superfluous.) I simply cut the silencers off at the very base and I think it makes their rifles look a lot more light weight and versatile. 

I was disappointed in these models by the fact that you can't really do anything with them beyond the stock poses. I was hoping for a lot more flexibility that is consistent with the other GW troop boxes so I was kind of stunned when I couldn't do much with these guys to flair them up. 

So there we go, these models are currently getting their primer coat and then it's on to the painting table sometime this week. 

Also, 

I am currently looking for a new 40k group. If you live down in the Los Angeles area, and can offer any recommendations that would be great. I haven't gotten to play the new edition yet, and would like to get these new models on the table as soon as possible!

Painting the Knights of the Round Table: Sir Percival

Ah crap, it's been a year since I posted. I have been a bad artist! The last year has been a whirlwind of activity, from performing in summer stock Shakespeare, to working 60 hour weeks, to taking stage combat classes I unfortunately haven't had a whole lot of time for board gaming and painting, however I did find some time last night to crank out a new paintjob on Sir Percival from "Shadows Over Camelot." I try to stay pretty true to the artwork on the character sheet, so Sir Percival was unfortunately pretty bland, however, it got me painting again. I also have some game reviews ready to hit the net very very soon. Watch this space!

Without further ado: Sir Percival.

An Exercise in Subtlety: Painting BattleLore

I've been working my way through the components of some of the games I have on my shelf, and when I looked into my copy of BattleLore, I saw a great challenge. What you see in the following pictures is just the start of an extended project. When models get this small, its really hard to get the camera to focus, so I apologize beforehand.

A slew of game reviews!

I have been playing with a new board game club on Thursday nights at All Ways Gaming in Chatsworth, CA these last few weeks and I've been having a blast. If you happen to live in the San Fernando Valley and if you're a board game enthusiast, stop on by! I have been knocked flat with how nice and accommodating the place is and how friendly they are to new people. I have also been able to try out some games that I probably wouldn't play otherwise, and I've decided to review them!

Poison by Playroom Entertainment:

Poison is a really simple card game, and when I mean simple, I mean I was able to pick up the game in about three minutes and win my first game by using simple strategies. The cards and components are about what you expect them to be quality-wise. The cards come in four vibrant colors with clear artwork and numbering. I am confused however why this game comes with three large card cauldrons, I get that they add to the theme, but they are really unnecessary to the overall gameplay and require the box to be the size akin to a Munchkin box. In my opinion this game would be much better served by coming in a simple card sleeve like Fluxx.